Start designing class activities by creating goals for what the students should learn from a particular activity. Ask yourself, “why would kids need to know this?”

This helps ensure that projects motivate students’ interests and build important skills.
This also helps to keep the course focused, and prevents doing activities just because they’re “cool.”
Clear goals will also help to keep all students on the same page with progression through the material.
Create a "need to know."
- Make a KWL Chart: This is a table where your students will fill in their thoughts to reflect on past and future learning, according to the following criteria:
  - What they know.
  - What they want to know.
  - What they have learned.
  - How they can learn more.
- Fill out this table on your own first to make sure the activity falls under the category of something students need to know.

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